Tuesday Dinner : Garlic Parmesan Noodles

I made dinner last night . . . on a Tuesday! We were not super hungry but we still needed to eat so I looked for one of what I thought was several simple pasta recipes. It took so long to locate this one. So it won by default. I’m sure the other recipes are all next to each other in our five binders of recipes. I really do need to take the time to make specific binders. Probably make it down to : chicken, breakfast, slow cooker, dessert and pasta – or something like that, I have to work on my list but that’s not a bad start. I had a breakfast, dessert and a slow cooker binder but either I started throwing items in to fill them up or those binders are one inch and couldn’t be used for much else. I should get five three inch binders and never need binders again!

This reminds me that I went through a serious basil phase and I believe one of those binders is nothing but basil recipes. I had a basil phase and a pepperoncini phase.

Onto the recipe itself. We didn’t have fettuccine so I used bowtie pasta. Turns out, they are officially called, farfalle. I’m sure that’s the first time I’ve seen that word. I used two tablespoons of garlic, as using a measurement of “half” doesn’t make any sense. I’m sure it means to use a full scoop of whichever measuring spoon and then don’t fill it up nearly as much, the second time. It is garlic, so I did two full tablespoons, as we like garlic.

Being so empowered by my garlic decision, I quickly put two teaspoons of crushed red pepper in. And even as I was putting the second spoonful in, I knew it was too much. So I would recommend only using one teaspoon of crushed red pepper.

We need using Parmesan cheese in our recipes and are constantly buying jugs of it. We’ve committed to buying the larger container of it but now it seems like we’re using it even more!

So I made it too spicy for myself and Walker Dennis, my wife liked it but next time, it should be better. I needed to drink so much, I use to handle spices back in my Arizona days but it has been a long time that I have to rebuild my tolerance.

. . .

Denver was amazing, spent so much on food but luckily, I get reimburse for that but still, the money being spent, was on my mind. I got to see the Colorado Rockies play (and win) against my childhood team of the San Diego Padres. I’m not sure how this worked out but for a couple years, the San Diego Padres used a facility in Yuma, Arizona has a training ground. It doesn’t make sense, when I look back at it, but I’ve had others confirmed that was the case. No one knows why, as that field wasn’t amazing or anything but that was the case. So the Padres were my go-to team to root for, then I switched and root for the Cubs. Which, up until last year, wasn’t great but when you like a team, you like a team.

I’m working on a post that presents the keynote speaker’s story, as it was heart breaking to hear but she has made the most out of it. In the middle of it, I just wanted to jump on a plane and go hug my three-year-old son. I can’t believe he’s going to be four in three short months.

I need to locate the YouTube video that she referenced, as that’ll be the crux of the post, if I can’t find that then I will have to rework my post.

. . .

While in Denver, I was able to catch up on my Doctor Who, not nearly as much as I thought I was going to do but I saw a few more episodes than I have in a long while. My next episode is Season 9’s Face the Raven, the tenth episode. So I watched three episodes. So I’m three episodes and a special away from finishing season nine and having to figure out how I’m going to watch season ten. Hopefully the Husbands of River Song is on Amazon, and for free, if not, I’ll have to figure that out too. Now that I know I’m so close, I really should buckle down and finish that.

Instead of watching a slew of Netflix, which I guess I didn’t watch any Netflix as Doctor Who is on Amazon, but still. I got crazy caught up on the Living Between Wednesdays podcast and played a slew of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Legends. I’m crazy far in that game. Pretty much, I would use up all of my energy (pizzas) and once that was done, I’ll watch an episode of Doctor Who and jump back into TMNT Legends before committing to sleeping. While playing Legends, with no sound or music, I’ll listen to Living Between Wednesdays.

I’m on episode 52 now, so I’m more than half way, which is intense! I use the website, Player FM, to download the episodes. I use that website to also listen to Prinze and the Wolf. Except, the Prinze and the Wolf has a different interface so I’m able to just leave the website, on my phone, onto the episode and click back page and go to the episode list and download the latest episode and do that, every week. Living Between Wednesdays, isn’t as easy but maybe it is because I’m not current with it. Though, I’m almost to episode 60, which is the last episode I see before having to wait the very long 15 seconds for the Pre-60 episodes to load so I can download those. So 60 has been this milestone moment, in my head, that if I can get there, I can download episodes without having to wait. It is a small thing but that wait time as me downloading five episodes at a time. I have last week’s episode of Prinze and the Wolf, and I’m sure this week’s episode is going to be uploaded soon – like today – but I’m really enjoying Living Between Wednesdays and I’m so close to my goal of 60 that I’m putting it on hold for the moment. Playing Legends, at night, as also cut into my Fighter and the Kid podcast viewing on YouTube, and I really do want to watch the Taran Kilam episode, episode 290. Which was two weeks ago, so I may be six episodes behind now. I’m hoping he talks about his wife, Cobie Smulders, on that episode.

So I’m sort of obsess with TMNT Legends but the way the energy works, I can only play it for an hour at a time. So I try to play in the morning, at lunch now and at night. Which, really, is enough. I’m at the point where I’m just grinding away trying to get my heroes stronger as I’m trying to three star missions in Chapter Four before moving onto the next mission but I have two levels at one star each and I barely earn those one stars. So I need to get my main group of five to be stronger, they are level 26 and I’m level 27 so once I get them stronger, I can try to three star them. I’m at the point where I need to get them stronger so I can unlock their level 25 moves (it makes sense if you play the game – which you should!) but I’m not strong enough to get the items to improve their skills. I’m in a weird place right now.

My main team is Leonardo, Karai, Newtralizer (my PVP team), Steranko (my four person PVP team, which I’m doing pretty well there, at the moment) and Stockman Fly. My goal is to level up Leonardo and Stockman Fly’s healing moves but I also really need to level up Karai and Sternako’s area moves. Newtralizer is just a good guy, in the game, to have as another enforcer. So that’s where I’m at in the game. I believe I have ten characters now and I’m getting closer to getting some other characters, so all the time is finally paying off. I need more Orange (Swift) and Red (Might) characters, having those characters would make the Gauntlet and the main game easier. So I have lots of goals in that game.

I’ve learn my lesson about not wasting Mutagen now, I’m only using Mutagen to get my new characters up to level 20. I’ve also started experimenting with using my T-Coins to go to the Shop and buying a DNA card for the character cards that cost below 500 T-Coins, to get me closer to several characters. You need either 5/20/70 DNA cards to unlock characters. I’ve gotten some 5 DNA card guys but their level max is 20 until you get 20 more cards but level 20 isn’t that bad, if you level up their moves quickly. Which I do like the new practice I’ve started, of getting a new characters, leveling up their one move (or two if they have them) until that move is up to the level 20 standard. From there, they need items to level up the individual move and the level 25 of the move require items that only certain levels have – and those are the levels that are kicking my butt, right now. So it is a vicious cycle I’m in.

I have a lot of thoughts with TMNT Legends. I’m super enjoying the game and I don’t mind grinding as I remember doing that with my RPG days. Which, this game has really satisfy that RPG itch I’ve been having for years now. I’m fully committed to this and it really is a fun game. I unlocked Kirby-Bat, and I have him at 20 and his one move up to 20 but he still isn’t that strong. But still, I need Orange guys and he was next up.

I’ve also started really playing the Hard levels and going for certain characters DNA, which is something I should have done from the beginning, that’s been another lesson to learn. I resisted it, before, as those levels cost 12 pizza points instead of six, and give the same items as the Normal levels BUT they provide a DNA card to a character I want, so it is sort of worth it. Plus, 12 points goes toward my overall experience instead of six, so I’m leveling up myself and then I can get my main guys up to my level and they’ll be that much stronger.

I got a couple characters while in Denver – Chris Bradshaw, Justin, Xever, Pizza Face and Pulverizer. I must have 11 characters then. I hadn’t really counted them before now.

I’m pretty proud of the progress I’ve made, progress towards getting other characters and progress in the game. I’m getting better at PVP and I’m really enjoying the special missions. I wish I could make progress on the Movie Special Mission but those foes are all level 26 and 27 and my main team is barely 26, they need to be 28 before I can stand a chance. That’s true for the Gauntlet too! They might be level 25 but a serious threat at 25.

. . .

Since I was in Denver, we didn’t watch any of our shows together. We finally saw our first episode of the Office in a week, last night, so our next episode is Season Four’s Chair Model.

I believe that’s everything I watched or played in the past week.

I was irritated that Vudu doesn’t work on my Kindle, it makes sense as Amazon makes the Kindle and they don’t want me watching another company’s streaming device (that allows me to buy movies) so it is a direct competitor but still. I really wanted to watch Winter Solider (after listening to so much Living Between Wednesdays) and couldn’t as I didn’t have a way to download Vudu. I could have downloaded it onto my phone, but I barely have space on my phone as it is.